Well, for the moment, things seem to have quieted down at Yellowstone. So the swarm may be over. But until a day or two have passed with no real
activity to speak of, it could return. Hurry up and wait.

Originally posted by Pharyax
That's a rare area to get a quake. At least in past viewings over the years.

This is not really true. There have been a number of 3, 4, and 5 magnitude EQ's in that area over the last 30+ years. Here is a USGS search which
shows us all EQ's that have occurred within a ~250mi radius circle from the one that just hit, which you referenced above:

Originally posted by Pharyax
That's a rare area to get a quake. At least in past viewings over the years.

This is not really true. There have been a number of 3, 4, and 5 magnitude EQ's in that area over the last 30+ years. Here is a USGS search which
shows us all EQ's that have occurred within a ~250mi radius circle from the one that just hit, which you referenced above:

Ah, good stuff. Still, it's the highest (so far unless there is a revision) Mag so far. That, and watching all the data on the Pacific Plate, its bad
news, as that energy has to go somewhere. I hope it calms down.

Originally posted by spinkyboo
It's called paying attention. Thinking. It's what we don't do enough of.

Chances are you could probably go outside right now and find 10 people on your own block that don't even know that Yellowstone presents an issue that
could wipe out the species as we know it.

Why do some people feel such an overwhelming need to put down the people who choose to THINK?

Perhaps because THEY don't want to?

Ready to pay attention?

I could say the same as you as you probably don't know of the plethora of other caldera super volcano systems that could potentially 'wipe out the
species as we know it'. I'm willing to bet that you do not know about active and ancient super volcano systems that were stronger than some of the
Yellowstone eruptions, or nearly matched it in strength.

That's right, Yellowstone isn't the only one.

Do you pay attention over every little quake in the Lake Taupo, or Lake Toba system? Both have produced VEI 8 eruptions in recent history, one only
~26,000 years ago and both released more material than the youngest Yellowstone caldera. What about Whakamaru, about 250,000 years ago?

Or how about quakes around the ancient La Garita Caldera in Colorado? Did you know that Caldera eruption was double the strongest Yellowstone
eruption at Island Park?

What about Long Valley, or the Valles Caldera System in New Mexico? Or the Bennet Lake Volcanic Complex? How about the Calderas on Iwo Jima? What
about uplift at Campi Flegrei, the most documented in the world?

Heck, lets really scare you and talk about the Lazufre volcanic area in South America. That system has a 45 km wide area of ground deformation that
formed over a 3 year period (2003-2006). To put that in perspective, thats an area of about 1100km sql miles being uplifted on AVERAGE 3cm per year
-- or comparable to the size of Yellowstone and Long Valley. Someplace's had 50cm uplift.

I don't see ANY threads here about those systems, but Yellowstone has a handful 1.5 earthquakes and it's the end of the world, the sky is falling,
and a monster eruption will take place next week.

And yet you sit there and tell me that I don't want to "think", when in reality you're the one that can't see the forest from the tree's.

Hiccups in an active caldera system is not the portent for a major eruption. Even the 7.5quake of 1959 caused an uplift of almost 12 feet along the
Hebgen fault -- with no eruption. Nor did the 1983 Borah Peak quake in Idaho.

Not every hiccup the caldera makes portend to a major eruption. Over 30 recent lava flows have occurred within the caldera and around it since the
last caldera forming eruption. In fact, the 'hills' behind Old Faithful and the upper geyser basin are one such flow. Thousands of other
hydrothermal explosions have taken place as well -- some knocking out sections as big as heart lake with no eruption. Nor the 80 some odd volcanic
eruptions there that have taken place have caused caldera forming eruptions either.

If you want to panic and lose sleep over every little quake in Yellowstone, be my guest. Play to your own ignorance that Yellowstone can only produce
extinction level events. Oh and please, by all means ignore the rest of the caldera systems in the world, some just as dangerous, some more so,
others less.

Oh I know why.. it's not sensational enough. Basalt flows or smaller volcanic eruptions just aren't newsworthy even though they are the most likely
to happen in the caldera. Just like the Lassen Peak swarm a few months back had NO notice here, nor did the Crater Lake swarm.

As far as the other calderas, mention any of them I mentioned and get a blank stare even on this forum, but Yellowstone -- OMG DISCOVERY CHANNEL SAYS
ITS GOING TO BLOW! PANIC!

Apologies to anyone trying to use The Yellowstoner today. Every time a swarm happens and one of These
Threads gets started, my Yellowstoner traffic soars. Time Warner forces me to change my IP address like three times a day now, because they're bored
power-hungry control freaks with miniscule genitalia I guess, so it's down right now and I can't put it up again until I get home from work (between
6 and 7 central time, probably). Please don't think it's some conspiracy. I don't work for Them; if I did, the site would always be up,
wouldn't it? Hell, it probably wouldn't even exist...

So wait another 3-4 hours and try again. You either won't regret it, or you'll wish you hadn't looked.

And since I just completed a curmudgeon post, I'll be productive and add something to the discussion before data is misinterpreted.

Some data from YFT_SHZ_WY (Old faithful) webicorder for 10/14/09 should be met with subjective scrutiny.

Namely anything that appears 'harmonic' on that webicorder yesterday. Giantess Geyser erupted at approximately 4:10am MDT, registering it's own
continued quake and continuing periodically throughout the day. These eruptions are always picked up by the seismograph at old faithful due to steam
bubbles forming and collapsing at depth.

For those that do not know, Giantess is an infrequent geyser, erupting on average 2-3 times a year. Varations of this can take place, as in 1983 it
had erupted 42 times prior to the Borah Peak earthquake. It also erupts 1-48 hours, with some exceptions as the Hebgen Lake quake caused an eruption
over 100 hours.

It is a fountain type geyser, with eruptions being massive bursts of water. These bursts can reach 50ft to over 200ft. The eruption ended sometime
last night past dusk and before the morning hours according to the seismograph.

Here is a pattern that I have noticed between Yesterday and Today. It is probably nothing but look at the alignment, Missouri/Arkansas seems to be at
the middle/fulcrum of the line. Most of the EQ's are small but it still makes you go hmmm....

probably the reason people freak out about these things is because of what they are told by scientists.
for example, in this film, go to 2: 10 into the video

if they hadn 't said the "first indications" would be such and such,
and those indications are currently present at some level in ys,
and were also present in 2008 swarms, no one would even
think about it.

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